Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire is a bit like Guild of Dungeoneering, except worth playing. It's a card based dungeon crawl, but otherwise, in almost every way, Spire is the superior game. Actually that's super harsh, I didn't mind Guild for the first hour or so.

In Spire you go from encounter to encounter on a branching map. Each node on the map has an icon signifying what kind of encounter is at that location. There are enemies, elites, merchants, rest areas and random encounters. Randoms could be a situation to navigate, a reward, or perhaps more combat. At the end of each dungeon is a boss to fight and a major stash of loot to pilfer.

Combat is fun and the mix of cards picked up along the way are enough to keep you playing. As in similar games, you play cards to attack, defend, etc and the number of cards you can play per turn is dictated by a skill attribute. There are also potions and items that change how your character works.

I only played through one class, a fighter type, but there are more to unlock and I'll definitely be giving them a go. At the end of my first run I unlocked a mage looking guy, so I guess he's next on the chopping block of my ineptitude.

Most importantly, you don't lose all your character/deck building progress between dungeons (unlike GoD, which got uninstalled for doing that to me). You keep it all so long as you keep your guy alive, but do be mindful that the game contains permadeath, so you WILL lose it all if you die. Just don't die, which is something I forgot to do.

I played Spire on my PC, on the couch via Steam Link with a Steam Controller, and on my tablet via the Steam Link app. All worked beautifully, as should happen in this day and age. A game that makes the effort to work across gaming paradigms get's a big tick from me.

My only quibble is the price. It's an eye watering $36AUD.

VERDICT: Great for sitting on your ass in a casual game session. I'm compelled to play more and that means a recommendation from me.

Final word: RECOMMENDED (but maybe wait for a sale, it's bloody expensive for what it is)

(game link)